Activists on left, right grabbing spotlight at bank annual meetings

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America faces a proposal from a conservative group, The National Center for Public Policy Research, seeking an audit centered on what it claims is workplace discrimination.

“All agree that employee success should be fostered and that no employees should face discrimination, but there is much disagreement about what non-discrimination means,” the proposal states.

The audit proposal seeks an assessment of whether pay and authority at BofA is being divided up based on “ethnic categories rather than by merit,” according to the text of the proposal.

The proposal follows efforts by progressive investors in recent years that have forced some banks to conduct audits of their lending operations to root out potential discrimination against people of color. Again this year, Wells Fargo faces a proposal from the Service Employees International Union requesting an audit to identify any adverse impacts against nonwhite stakeholders and communities of color.

In its proxy statement, BofA said that the conservative group’s proposal is unnecessary because of the bank’s focus on making progress on racial equality, civil rights, and nondiscrimination, which includes ongoing reporting.

The $3.2 trillion-asset bank said that since 2015, representation of people of color in its management levels has increased 57%, and half of its workers globally are women.

Bank of America’s annual meeting is scheduled for April 26.

The BofA racial audit proposal is not the only effort by a conservative group at this year’s annual shareholder meetings.

The right-leaning National Legal and Policy Center has submitted proposals to both BofA and Wells Fargo seeking reports on the banks’ charitable contributions. The group argues that without a system of transparency and accountability for those donations, bank executives may be spending money on objectives that do not align with the interests of the companies and their shareholders.

Both banks have recommended votes against these proposals, too.

Wells Fargo, which is also scheduled to hold its annual meeting on April 26, said in its proxy statement that it already provides disclosures about charitable contributions through an interactive map.

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who serves as trustee of the state’s common retirement fund, is again asking Wells Fargo to issue a report on its incentive-based pay structures.

DiNapoli’s push began in the wake of the bank’s fake-accounts scandal, where employees who faced pressure to meet sales goals opened accounts under customers’ names without their approval. The revelations led to years of investigations, billions of dollars in fines and regulatory limits on the company’s growth.

DiNapoli, a former Democratic state lawmaker, wants Wells Fargo to disclose information about not just named executive officers at the company who receive incentive-based compensation, but other employees as well. His proposal has received slightly more support each year it has been submitted, from 21.3% in 2019 to 25.3% at last year’s annual meeting.

The $1.9 trillion-asset bank is again recommending shareholders vote against the proposal, saying in its proxy statement that a report on incentive pay could reveal confidential and sensitive information.

The bank also said that its incentive compensation risk management program provides “heightened oversight of employees in roles that may be able, individually or as a group, to expose the Company to material risk.”